Advanced Tennis Elbow / Have done surgery already

Hello. I'll try and lay this out a efficiently as possible. I'm 41 years old, male, slim frame, healthy.

About 3 years ago, I began feeling pain due to weight training in the gym. I began a rigorous fitness regime and was determined to stick with it.

Due to either bad form, over-zealousness, tight hand grip, or doing exercises I probably shouldn't have been doing (skull crushers-please look it up if you need to), I began feeling pain/odd soreness in my forearms and elbow.

The issue became worse and worse over a few months. Pain would occur when straightening arm, reaching out, picking things up from floor (even small things picked up with fingers), carrying bags, some gripping (such as with a slight twist of forearm), applying pressure in the opposite direction of hand palm, adjusting shirt collar, "wrist flicking" such as with frisbees.

Also, riding my motorcycle didn't hurt, but AFTERWARDS, it did... when I got off and extended my arm/gripping. Things got bad when it hurt to put on clothes, tie shoes, even move around and bed. I couldn't lift bed sheets off me with bad arm... it was horrible.

After seeing a specialist, I got cortisone shots. When that didn't help, I had surgery: Extensor Carpi Radialis Brevis Debridement. Seemed to help afterwards, but now I can't use that arm for too long without soreness and numb pain. Gripping for long periods of time and moving my arm is an issue, such as when I use a weed trimmer (holding a grip and moving my arm around) and watering the lawn also. These lawn-work issues were just last month.

For the past 5-6 months, I've done the exercises I learned in PT: Forearm curls, reverse curls, Pronation/Supination with weights, etc. I recently purchased "Handmaster Plus" similar to the rubber band exercises for fingers (I think my fingers play a large roll in producing pain). All these exercises DON'T cause pain, but I do them to "strengthen". I even purchased a computer mouse that keeps my arm in the neutral position (palm sideways) instead of palm facing downwards.

Against my better judgement, when my OTHER arm began having bad issues as well, I got another cortisone shot. That was 6 months ago. So far, so good, but I'm scared the pain will come back, which is why I've been doing the PT exercises I mentioned. I almost feel as if I have two separate issues... helping the arm that has already had surgery, and preventing the issue from getting worse on the other arm... IF it ever comes back.

I've seen many doctors to get various opinions... all 4 have given slightly different advice from "just do PT", "it's a DEGENERATIVE issue that will only get worse", "surgery is a last resort", etc...

I've been thinking of purchasing your DVD, but wanted to get some feedback on my issue first.

I'm sure I missed something, but hopefully not. Thanks for any input.

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Joshua Comments:

"I've seen many doctors to get various opinions... all 4 have given slightly different advice from "just do PT", "it's a DEGENERATIVE issue that will only get worse", "surgery is a last resort", etc..."

'Just do PT' won't work. If there's a function problem, making something that can't function right work more/harder isn't going to address the cause of the lack of function.

That you've had pain and went through doctors' care and still have pain is not an indication of a 'bad' problem. It just means you haven't yet tried anything that had a chance of working in the first place.